NOTHING TO STOP YOU

WHEN PLANNING AN OCEAN PASSAGE, HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOU CAN KEEP GOING NO MATTER WHAT? RUPERT HOLMES FINDS OUT WHAT VENDÉE GLOBE SKIPPERS CAN TEACH US ABOUT MID-OCEAN REPAIRS

- RUPERT HOLMES

Some of the damage we saw at the Vendée Globe finish was simply staggering, yet this edition was also remarkable for its small number of retirements. Many boats suffered major issues, yet kept racing until the very end. The first boat home, Charlie Dalin’s Apivia, gave a foretaste. We knew he’d damaged the port foil system south of Australia, but few were prepared for the sight of his boat when he approached the finish, showing the foil supported by improvised stays Dalin had needed to repeatedly adjust and maintain for 13,000 miles and 44 days.

As Dalin crossed the line, 90 miles to the west Boris Herrmann was dealing with a broken shroud after the bottom splice tore open in his collision with a trawler. Next home after Dalin was Louis Burton, who told us the hardest thing for him had been the “constant DIY on the boat.” Burton was dogged by pilot and electronic problems, rigging and halyard issues, loss of the watermaker, and even damage caused by a fire.

These three boats were not particularly unlucky – almost every boat that reached the finish had to overcome major technical problems at some point. But what’s remarkable about many of the repairs is they were not short-term get-you-home lash-ups – they allowed the boat to be pushed in full race mode for tens of thousands of miles. We spoke to the skippers to find out what ocean cruising sailors could learn from the race.

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